Primary Outlook: Women Candidates in New York

Kelly Dittmar

Gender Watch 2018From March to December 2018, the Barbara Lee Family Foundation (BLFF) and the Center for American Women and Politics (CAWP) partnered to offer Gender Watch 2018, which tracked, analyzed, and illuminated gender dynamics in the 2018 midterm elections. With the help of expert scholars and practitioners, Gender Watch 2018 furthered public understanding of how gender influences candidate strategy, voter engagement and expectations, media coverage, and electoral outcomes in campaigns. The blog below was written for Gender Watch 2018, as part of our collective effort to raise questions, suggest answers, and complicate popular discussions about gender’s role U.S. elections.

 

Ahead of the New York congressional primary election on June 26, 2018, we outline the numbers and proportions of women who have filed as candidates for congressional office. New York holds its statewide primary elections on September 13, 2018. The data below also provide points of historical comparison to give context to today’s presence and potential success of women candidates.

All data are provided from the Center for American Women and Politics, Eagleton Institute of Politics, Rutgers University. For a full list of the women candidates in New York primary races for congressional and statewide offices, see CAWP’s Election Watch page.

CONGRESS

Current: 9 (7D, 2R) of 29 members of the New York congressional delegation (31%)
Filed: 29 (23D, 6R)
Percent of all Filed Congressional Candidates (D/R): 29 of 89 (32.6%)

SENATE

Current: 1 of 2 senators

  • Incumbent Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D) is running for re-election this year.

Filed: 2 (1D, 1R)

  • Current U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D) is unopposed in the Democratic primary.
  • 1 (1R) woman is running unopposed for the Republican nomination to challenge Gillibrand in the general election.

Percent of all Filed Senate Candidates (D/R): 100% (2 of 2)
Percent of all Filed Democratic Senate Candidates:  100% (1 of 1)
Percent of all Filed Republican Senate Candidates: 100% (1 of 1)

HOUSE

Current: 8 of 27 representatives (29.6%)

  • 27 (16D, 11R) women have served in the U.S. House from New York, including 8 (6D, 2R) current representatives.

Filed:  27 (22D, 5R)

  • All 8 (6D, 2R) women incumbents are running for re-election.
  • 2 (2D) are running in the open seat contest in NY-25.
  • 17 (14D, 3R) women are running as challengers, including 2 (2D) women candidates challenging incumbents of their own party and 15 (12D, 3R) woman candidates running to challenge an incumbent of the opposing party in the general election.

* 10 (9D, 1R) of 27 women candidates for U.S. House from New York are women of color, including 5 (4D, 1R) Black women, 4 (4D) Latinas, and 1 (1D) Asian American woman.[1] New York currently has 3 (3D) women of color in its U.S. House delegation.

Districts with Women Candidates:  19 of 27
Percent of all Filed House Candidates (D/R):  31% (27 of 87)
Percent of all Filed Democratic House Candidates:  33.8% (22 of 65)
Percent of all Filed Republican House Candidates: 22.7% (5 of 22)

Recent history: The number of women who filed for major party candidacy for the U.S. House in New York in 2018 is greater than any other year between 2008 and 2018.

  • This year marks the highest number of Democratic and Republican women running for the U.S. House in New York between 2008 and 2018.
  • This year, there us just one open U.S. House seat in New York (NY-25).

NEW YORK PRIMARIES FOR STATEWIDE EXECUTIVE ELECTIONS WILL BE HELD ON SEPTEMBER 13, 2018.

[1] CAWP has not verified racial/ethnic identification for two women U.S. House candidates from New York.

Kelly Dittmar headshot

Kelly Dittmar

Kelly Dittmar is an Associate Professor of Political Science at Rutgers–Camden and Director of Research and Scholar at the Center for American Women and Politics at the Eagleton Institute of Politics. She is the co-author of A Seat at the Table: Congresswomen’s Perspectives on Why Their Representation Matters (Oxford University Press, 2018) (with Kira Sanbonmatsu and Susan J. Carroll) and author of Navigating Gendered Terrain: Stereotypes and Strategy in Political Campaigns (Temple University Press, 2015).

Read more